Multimedia-related entertainment services are the most important needs of the digital home, for example, services such as download of Internet videos and music are widely used in a common home. The DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance, digital living network alliance) proposes setting a DMS (Digital Media Server, digital media server) device in a home according to an interconnection standard for sharing various media data in the home, and provides media sharing service capability to a DMP (Digital Media Player, digital media player) device through a home network, and the DMP device may upload corresponding media contents to the DMS, or download corresponding media contents from the DMS, or play corresponding media contents in the DMS. In a scenario defined by the DLNA, the used protocol is UPnP (Universal Plug and Play, universal plug and play), and the UPnP protocol solves mutual discovery of devices, content directory browse, connection management, and audio and video transmission management.
The IPTV (Internet Protocol Television, internet protocol television) is also common in a digital home application solution, and recording and download of contents in an IPTV network is also a main way for obtaining entertainment multimedia contents in the digital home. Its an application scenario is a PVR (Personal Video Recorder, personal video recorder) type STB (Set-top Box, set-top box) records or downloads the IPTV contents locally, which may be played again locally if needed. When the PVR type STB is combined with the DMS, devices such as a STB, a computer, and a hand-held terminal that are in other rooms can share the video contents in the PVR type STB. That is to say, in the prior art, local recording is performed, and local playing that is not based on the capability of the IPTV system needs to realized, so only a STB having a hard disk can support the local recording or download. Moreover, due to the main function of the STB is to play multimedia contents, the function requirement of content sharing can be meet when the STB is in working. However, the STB is not a professional storage device, and cannot meet the requirement of content sharing of other devices in the home network anytime and anywhere.